It's not been a good season for Fulham , that's clear for everyone that has watched the side throughout the season - displays like the one at Ipswich have been too few and ones like at the Stadium of Light too often.

Players are underperforming, goals aren't flowing and down the other end, teams are finding it far too easy to breach the defence.

The Serbian came in when Fulham were staring down the barrel of a relegation to the third tier of English football after the mess of managers that were Rene Meulensteen, Kit Symons and Felix Magath, with the club in crisis.

He kept them up, and then the following campaign had a season that I don't think even the most optimistic of fans would've thought possible, getting them to the Play-offs playing the best brand of football since Jean Tigana.

Now, in the middle of December, with the side sitting in 12th having won just seven games all season, it's easy to forget where Jokanovic took Fulham from in just under two years at the helm.

This may sound like a history lesson, and a lesson that everyone reading this probably knows, but sometimes it's good to have context and remember where the club has come from when they're suffering a lack of form like they are at present.

Read More

Related Articles

A manager's history at a club shouldn't save them from the chop, but when that manager's history is only two-years old and has taken them from relegation candidates to promotion contenders, you realise it sounds a bit absurd to start calling for his head because they aren't winning games left, right and centre at present.

What Jokanovic did with the club last season was nothing short of amazing - he lost his two top scorers in Ross McCormack and Moussa Dembele and yet still finished the season with the league's joint highest goals scored tally.

And maybe, Jokanovic is now finding himself as a victim of his own success.

We all expected Fulham to be up there this season, but a whole bucket load of reasons, including poor summer recruitment, injuries and poor form have combined to ensure Fulham are a mid-table side.

That's what we would've really expected from the side last season, and although it's true that Fulham should've gone one better after the season they had, are the side simply regressing to the mean after an above average season?

The first half of the season was pretty similar to this one, no one really thought the Cottagers would end the season in the Play-offs having got to this stage with a pretty average set of results, in fact December was when the run that saw them go from a mid-table side to a Play-off side first started to take shape.

A rough past: Felix Magath

Read More

Related Articles

Personally, I don't see a better manager available to take over - people have told me they want Tony Pulis (??), Lee Johnson and Ostersunds manager Graham Poter, but would any of these do a better job than Jokanovic has of turning a poor side into one like this?

It's also worth remembering with Johnson, that Bristol City stuck by him when they went through a sticky patch and now the Ashton Gate side are third in the league.

It's a case of square pegs in round holes in player personnel at the moment - if we all know Ryan Sessegnon is better deployed further forward, don't you think Jokanovic knows that too?

Rafa Soares isn't favoured, and Jokanovic feels Sessegnon is better than Denis Odoi, so of course he is going to play Sessegnon at left back until someone comes into the side that can play the way Jokanovic wants his fullbacks to play, which neither Odoi or Soares can, yet Sessegnon is able to.

Things aren't good enough, yes - there's too many underperforming players that continue to find themselves starting every week, but when the strength in depth isn't there it's hard for Jokanovic to drop them, when he knows they are good players on their day and doing so might well continue getting poor results.

Fulham are only eight points off the Play-offs, despite playing so poorly this season, that in itself tells me the potential is there with Jokanovic at the helm, it just makes January all the more crucial for the team.

The club won't get automatic promotion, I think we all know that now, but Play-offs is still there which would equal last season - if they don't achieve it then where the club goes from here can be discussed in the summer, but to sack Jokanovic now would be a foolish and brash move.